ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2014
Cranial biomechanics underpins high sauropod diversity in resource-poor environments.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
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34 citing papers in PubMed.
- Diet of bird-like troodontid dinosaurs: synthesis of a contentious clade.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- How complex must shape data be to model in vivo forces? Intraspecific level validation of in silico jaw strength estimates in a lizard.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Dental microwear texture analysis reveals behavioural, ecological and habitat signals in Late Jurassic sauropod dinosaur faunas.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
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- Cranial functional specialisation for strength precedes morphological evolution in Oviraptorosauria.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Divergent strategies in cranial biomechanics and feeding ecology of the ankylosaurian dinosaurs.Scientific reports · 2023Article
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- A toolbox for the retrodeformation and muscle reconstruction of fossil specimens in Blender.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Sauropod dinosaur teeth from the lower Upper Cretaceous Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia and the global record of early titanosauriforms.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Three-dimensional polygonal muscle modelling and line of action estimation in living and extinct taxa.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Cranial muscle reconstructions quantify adaptation for high bite forces in Oviraptorosauria.Scientific reports · 2022Article
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- Egg Incubation Mechanics of Giant Birds.Biology · 2021Article
- Anatomy and systematics of the diplodocoidRoyal Society open science · 2021Article
- Niche partitioning shaped herbivore macroevolution through the early Mesozoic.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Evolutionary biomechanics: hard tissues and soft evidence?Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Decelerated dinosaur skull evolution with the origin of birds.PLoS biology · 2020Article
- Article
- Competition structured a Late Cretaceous megaherbivorous dinosaur assemblage.Scientific reports · 2019Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
High megaherbivore species richness is documented in both fossil and contemporary ecosystems despite their high individual energy requirements. An extreme example of this is the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation, which was dominated by sauropod dinosaurs, the largest known terrestrial vertebrates. High sauropod diversity within the resource-limited Morrison is paradoxical, but might be explicable through sophisticated resource partitioning. This hypothesis was tested through finite-element analysis of the crania of the Morrison taxa Camarasaurus and Diplodocus. Results demonstrate divergent specialization, with Camarasaurus capable of exerting and accommodating greater bite forces than Diplodocus, permitting consumption of harder food items. Analysis of craniodental biomechanical characters taken from 35 sauropod taxa demonstrates a functional dichotomy in terms of bite force, cranial robustness and occlusal relationships yielding two polyphyletic functional 'grades'. Morrison taxa are widely distributed within and between these two morphotypes, reflecting distinctive foraging specializations that formed a biomechanical basis for niche partitioning between them. This partitioning, coupled with benefits associated with large body size, would have enabled the high sauropod diversities present in the Morrison Formation. Further, this provides insight into the mechanisms responsible for supporting the high diversities of large megaherbivores observed in other Mesozoic and Cenozoic communities, particularly those occurring in resource-limited environments.
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